[ShadeTreeMech]

I don't have an instant MPG meter on my cars anymore, but I know in my cars that did have it, going slowly in 3rd or 2nd, even at low revs, were trumped by nearly any reasonable speed in overdrive. Doesn't make a lot of sense to me, but I know I always tried to get into 5th when I had a stick ASAP (or 6th gear, on my motorcycle.)

For that reason, I'd love to get both my vehicles longer legs. My Maxima spins well over 2k rpms at 65 and the minivan is geared even lower than that. I know in 3rd the maxima's rpms are exactly calculateable according to speed; to wit, 3000 rpms is 60, 3500 is 70, 2500 is 50, etc. So if the speedo ever went out I could very accurately figure the speed by going into 3rd.

While I know there are gears that can be exchanged in an automatic, I'm not savvy enough to do it myself, and shudder at how much it could cost to get someone else to do it for me. And if I could only hack into the computer of the Maxima (and minivan for that matter) I would adjust the shift points, or wire in a switch to stay in OD despite the throttle position. With an auto it is difficult to allow yourself to slow down and just lug it up a hill when your right foot needs to go down more to even have a hope of making it up the hill, and the act of opening the throttle will cause your computer to downshift the tranny.